Bill Clinton's in the house...

Former President Bill Clinton and President Barack Obama were in Concord, NH this morning.  I would have loved to make the 1.5 hour drive to see them but it looks like I wouldn't have come close to the podium if this photograph is any indication.  

I "borrowed" this photo from The Obama Diary today.  Not sure how President Clinton sounded today.  We saw his live introductory speech for the President last night & he was losing his voice, big time.  They were in Bristow, VA. last night at 10:30pm stumping.  

The American President: Still Relevant

Sixteen years after its release, "The American President" is still topical.  If it were released today,  it would be reflective of our current political landscape.

As a story, this has it all:  a well paced plot, a problematic love affair, dirty politics, ethical dilemmas, altruism vs practicality, etc.  Written by Aaron Sorkin who went on to adapt this as the great television series, "The West Wing", the movie has legs...good lookin' ones too!    

There are so many "moments" that resonate.  Here are two of the best. 

Scene set-up:  In order to placate his Right Wing opponents, hopefull improve his favorability ratings and smooth the way to re-election, the President decides to sacrifice an environmental bill his lobbyist girlfriend, Sydney Wade, has diligently worked to pass.  This decision comes after a lambasting from his political adviser played by Michael J. Fox.




Who is right?  I don't know but the dialog is great.  Somebody should have run and re-run this movie for the Obama Admin last year when they were taking the "high road" as it were.
 
Sydney learns of the renege on the part of her boyfriend, the President.  She breaks off their affair very succinctly. 

"Mr. President, you have bigger things to worry about than losing me.  You just lost my vote."   

Ouch! 

Scene Set-up:  The Prez delivers the speech we've all waited for; the speech his administrative advisors have begged him to unleash. 


Perhaps someone will suggest to the inner circle at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue this film may be streamed any night on Netflix. 

Get Out the Vote!!!!

Political quotes to ponder and discuss may be found in the upper right hand corner of Women of A Certain Age under "What do you think?"

"If you don't vote, you are as responsible as anyone for our political outcome."
  California Girl

  

Changing People's Minds

Mountain Valley Morning by Cole Scott

We had dinner with friends last night.  They are our closest friends in N.H. and we are at opposite ends of the political spectrum which  is often a topic of discussion among us.  We don't avoid politics but we don't necessarily seek to discuss them.  However, the topic of the current administration arose last night before dinner.  My friend's husband asked me

"What do you think of the current administration now?"  His tone betrayed his irritation.

I'd had a couple of glasses of wine so I wasn't clear headed but I responded

"I don't think there's been enough time to tell yet."

I  listened to him denounce the bank bailout, the economy, proposed health care reform and the other usual suspects.  I politely disagreed citing facts such as Bush setting up the TARP program, the economy tanking two years ago (the recession officially began in '07) and so on.  I threw in the repeal of Glass Steagall Act under Clinton, the implementation of NAFTA, deregulation under Reagan and Bushes I and II.  I referenced facts I'd researched for my blog Women of A Certain Age and the post I'd written on this topic. 

While I was pleased to have these tidbits at my fingertips, I knew they'd make no difference in his thinking just as his opinions make no difference to mine.  He eventually did say he feels that all politicians are just that:  politicians.  He is losing faith in the system.  He sounded despairing of significant changes for the better.
 
My husband is feeling much the same way about one of our congressional representatives, Carol Shea Porter, because she has approved stimulus spending on road projects in our area that epitomize wasteful government spending.

In thinking over the conversation this morning, I realize how polarized we have become and why it interferes with the necessary decision-making required to make changes the country so desperately needs.   Ongoing discussion and a willingness to listen are critical to overcoming bipartisanship.  If the politicians are indeed nothing more than that, it's up to us, their constituents, to demand more from them, to make them accountable.  We cannot do that by "dropping out" but by "tuning in" to "what's goin' on", that is, if we really care.

I'm No Nail!

I am home sick, bored and watching "The View". Normally, I wouldn't comment about the show but Whoopi Goldberg just read a tweet from Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa that sounds like it was written by a 10 year old. Actually, there were two tweets, Whoopi just read them together:

"Pres Obama you got nerve while u sightseeing in Paris to tell us 'time to deliver' on health care. We still on skedul/even workinWKEND."

"Pres Obama while u sightseeing in Paris u said 'time to delivr on healthcare' When you are a 'hammer' u think everything is NAIL I'm no NAIL."

While my mind screams "No U.S. Senator would write such drivel knowing it will hit the internet within nanoseconds", my common sense tells me to slap myself upside the head and get real. This is America. We admire uneducated political demagogues who speechify.

I quickly googled "Grassley tweet" to see if the quote were intact and accurate and came across this hilarious post from The Political Carnival. I've just added this blog to my list.

Oh, and if you want more bon mots from Senator Grassley, go here.

Images We Won't Soon Forget

Woo Hoo!

If I were a dog, this is how excited I would be to see our new President, Barack Obama, sworn in and George Bush & Dick Cheney leaving.

Photo by: LME Images

OPEC Bails Out Big 3 US Automakers !

Makes a great headline, doesn't it? After watching the interview between "60 Minutes'" Leslie Stahl and the Oil Minister of Saudi Arabia last night, all I could think was "If they have the biggest stake in the oil business, why don't they bail out the automakers?"

I'm now writing my congressional representative and both US senators as well as Nancy Pelosi and anyone else whose email I obtain to not stick us with this mess. Approach OPEC. After all, they stand to gain or lose the most in this crisis.

Now the REAL Work Begins

Obama Wins Chicago Tribune photo by Zbigniew Bzdak Nov 4, 2008

Nothing more to say than "I'm proud to be an American and I'm proud of my country."

McCain/Palin Ticket Nosedives Along With Economy

Wish I could say I am happy about all the Republicans tanking but...the economy is front and center and nobody is happy. We are, in fact, scared. These are scary times and I am glad my father, who would have been 98 this year, is not alive to see this. Dad lived through the Great Depression. He was not a child. He was working for Florsheim Shoes in downtown Chicago when the market crashed. He actually saw people hit the pavement outside his basement window in an office building. He never forgot the fear, the panic and the aftermath. Nobody who lived through those years forgot the aftermath. My mother-in-law, born in 1927, wore dresses made of flour sacks to school in Pennsylvania. She never forgot the humiliation.
My ability to relate to the Depression is through the stories of my relatives , photographs and books such as The Grapes of Wrath and Dorothea Lange photographs. The candidates studiously avoided characterizing the economic free fall we are in with the word "depression". They didn't even want to use the word "recession" although too late for that.
What I want to know is, who's going to be made accountable for this mess? We all know who is going to pay for it...we are. But where is the accountability? I mean, when you have CEOs appearing before Congress, such as the $186+ million dollar compensated CEO of Lehman Bros, Richard Fuld, wanting to know "where's our bailout?" without so much as an apology, you know we are getting screwed, blued and tattooed...and not in a good way.
Unless we, as tax payers, demand accountability and recompense for this debacle, we are going to watch our country become insolvent, our assets diminish and disappear and mortgage our children and grandchildren's future for some time to come.

I Don't Know What to Think

I watched the debate last night til I could stand it no more. My take, overall, was this: McCain was able to corner and bully Obama by repeatedly going on the attack, talking over his responses to the attacks, and belittling Obama for his "naivete" and lack of understanding (aka "experience"). I was devastated.

Do I buy into what McCain had to say? Hell no! But, do I buy into the American people buying into what McCain had to say? Hell yes! I'm in advertising, remember? It's not what you say, it's how you say it, how often you say it, and how receptive (or dumb) the audience.

Obama certainly came off as the more reasonable of the two. He showed incredible restraint against increasingly vitriolic accusations about his record on all fronts. I would have liked to have seen more passion, less restraint and more offense, less defense.

Keith Olbermann, God love him, thought Obama won. Mr. O & the rest of his MSNBC cohorts, including Pat Buchanan, thought Obama's show of restraint, grace and composure, contrasted sharply with the surly attack dog tactics of MCain. Several of them, including Buchanan (!) went so far as to suggest that McCain's pugnacious stances are exactly what America wants to get away from...more of the same of the past 8 years.

I hope to heaven they are right but, I just don't know.

Not Ready for Prime Time Players or Grandstanding?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26900453/?GT1=43001

Whaddyaknow? McCain is going to show up for the first debate tonight after all. I know it's almost October and we're waiting with baited breath for the Pennant races and World Series but John McCain's grandstanding is not the sort America wants to see. His stunt to "suspend the Presidential campaign" until the financial bailout is achieved was just that...a stunt. I have to wonder if his campaign simply doesn't think he is ready for the event and wanted an out. Of course, McCain's placing himself "above the fray of politics" to step in and act presidential smacks of the worst kind of hucksterism. The entire gambit has backfired and I don't think even the most die-hard Republicans are too pleased right now.

But what a great night on tv for the rest of us!

Citizen McCain, Faust or Both?

John McCain's evolution from a hard charging truth telling centrist with some liberal policies to conservative-base-pleasing win the race at any cost candidate is reminiscent of the great cinematic character, Charles Foster Kane.

"Citizen Kane" is a movie about many things on many levels, not least of which are the extraordinary changes in the political views of the title character. Charles Foster Kane's career begins as a person determined to "use journalism to protect the interests of ordinary people."
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0033467/synopsis)

He does so with great vigor and is heralded, at first, as a reformer. But Kane becomes a man
consumed by his own ambition and he leaves his well known crusading values by the wayside as he struggles to achieve political success. As one critic noted, "This is a mighty exposition of American society and a devastating critique of the American Dream which, coming on the heals of the Great Depression found an audience that was all too aware of the shortcomings associated with a capitalistic free market enterprise system when it does not work. To a great extent the film is a contemporary version of Faust (a fact that was no doubt not lost on Hearst or Wells), the story of a man who gains the world and loses his soul in the process."

This, sadly, is the way I see John McCain, a politician I once admired. I defended him many times over the years, believing he was one of the few truth tellers, unaffected by pressure put on him by the Republican party. I honestly believed he went his own way.

John McCain has succumbed to the very people he once resisted. His desire to be President has overcome his desire to maintain his moral code. He is a maverick no more.

"Really, there is no beautiful style, no beautiful design, and no beautiful color: there is just one beauty, that of the truth that is revealed."

This quote about truth is by Auguste Rodin. Double click on the title and you'll link to a Sep 10 Washington Post article on truth vs lies and whether those lies, in this presidential campaign, become facts before they can be "undone".

I am appalled by the television ads the McCain camp is running. They present lies and they are spending alot of money for high frequency among viewers. Some examples: 1) Obama will raise your taxes 2) Obama will retreat from Iraq, etc. 3) Obama knows nothing about foreign policy.

Last night's Rachel Maddox show, MSNBC 9pm EST, debuted a new tv ad implying Obama was for sex education to kindergartners. The visual shows a photo of him, smiling, next to that is a photo of young children. The juxtaposition of the two looks as tho' he's leering down at them. The voice over discusses his desire to teach sex to children. In reality, he had sponsored a bill to protect children from sexual predators by teaching them simple questions to ask strangers. Hells bells, I worked for a radio station in the early 90's that sponsored predator protection programs all over San Diego County aimed at elementary school children, K-6. It was co-sponsored by the San Diego Sheriff's Dept, Police Dept and Fire Dept. I used the techniques with my children. It had wonderfully simple ways to help your child when confronted by a stranger. My sons, now 20 & 21, remember those techniques to this day and I've no doubt they'll teach them to their own children.

My point is these lies are costing Obama votes. Why? People accept them at face value. People want to believe the worst. This is why tabloids flourish. My question is, when is the Obama/Biden camp going to combat these lies with their own pointed ads? They want to take the high road, I know. But the Republicans never do and this is no time to play nice.

Consider the fact that John McCain is now stooping to the very tactics used against him by "W" during the 2000 election. Consider the fact he is working with a Karl Rove alum for strategy. that is enough to give everyone pause...unless of course you approve of lies, subterfuge, no first amendment protection and the end always justifies the means.

Where's the Beef?

This is my new mantra now that I've heard the Sarah Palin speech. Shakespeare's line, "it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury signifying nothing" made its way through my mind as I watched her.

I do not underestimate her nor the American people. She has just the right look and delivery to gather many followers. But ask yourselves, what is she really saying? What are her policies? What are her plans for the country? How is she going to help the middle class? Just because she came from a small town and terms herself a "Washington outsider" doesn't give her credentials to accomplish anything. She has to have an agenda and lay it out. None of us should vote with our emotions. Everyone needs to take a long hard look at the issues and decide which candidate is best suited to: revitalize the economy; deliver a health care plan affordable to all Americans; bring home our soldiers; provide environmentally friendly solutions to our energy crises,;fix our educational system...it's a disgrace; stop taxing the middle class and start taxing the top 1%; stop giving tax credits to major corporations; provide tax incentives to companies that DO NOT OUTSOURCE.

Let's get real. She and John McCain represent the same old story. There is NOTHING new in anything they say. She tried to use patriotism and love of country as a weapon against the Democratic ticket. That is, if you're a war hero and you believe in the war in Iraq, you're a patriot. If you're against the war, you're not. That is utter nonsense.

Stick to the issues and lay out your plans Sarah Palin. Then maybe we'll all have something concrete to discuss.

It's Joe

Well, the suspense is over. On to the Democratic convention...

Right Wing Radio

Before reading my post below, double click the title "Right Wing Radio" for an industry trade opinion on Michael Savage:

When I TRY to listen to a Michael Savage or a Rush Limbaugh I get sad. I say "try" because I usually cannot stomach their content. I say "sad" because I realize so many people buy into their act. Many years ago, at the beginning of the Limbaugh/Stern wage & audience wars, I felt that Limbaugh & Stern were really two sides of the same coin...extremists on opposite sides of the middle using their shows to build ratings and attract listeners for one reason only: money. I didn't like either approach but I did view it as theatre. After all, weren't we trained to sell radio as "theatre of the mind"?
Nowadays the antics of a Limbaugh and Savage and Ingraham etc seem only to fuel the extreme views of the right wing and reinforce alot of crazy zealotry that polarizes the country. The dismal attempt of Air America to get out the opposite views never really reached a mass audience and has, therefore, failed. NPR is really the only true left leaning, mass appeal network with an opposing view. When we ask ourselves how could this nation have fallen so far so fast in just 7 1/2 years, we need only to look to the people with the platforms to influence the angry, the fearful and the dispossesd to know how very influential they truly are.

Stirrings from the empty nest: The only thing we have to fear ...

Double click this post title to read a blog I really enjoy. Subject matter is pertinent to the work situation in this country today: people trying to figure out how much longer they'll be gainfully employed and what does it mean?

"Black is the new President, Bitch"

Tracey Morgan on SNL says it all...

OUTRAGE

So, we've crossed another milestone in Iraq; the milestone of 4000 US troops dead. And for what? Where is the outrage? Where are the protestors? Why are we seeing this number or any number for that matter and doing nothing? What price are we willing to pay before somebody does something to stop this? Why do I feel such a sense of helplessness, anger and despair about my own country and our leaders? People want change in this country but are they going to get out and do something to make sure that change occurs no matter whom we elect? Or are we going to hope against hope that our elected officials will listen to their constituents, do their jobs and bring home our troops? I honestly do not know.
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